a lot of people talk about upgrading the wiring but dont mention much about replacing the fusible link between the alt and battery.

does anyone have an in-depth write up on upgraded wiring and fuse/fusible link?

No info on fusible link except I did mine in March of 2010 in my '98 and have not had any issues with the wiring. The output is more like 140 amps on the Durango alternator I installed. Not sure if the difference is a mistake or if there are two bolt up Durango alternators available, a 160 and a 140.

The fuse able link will protect the wiring. As long as you don't pull more amps than the link is good for, you should be fine with you're old wiring.

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'00 TJ/4.0/NV3550/D30(Aussie)/D44(LSD)/3.73s/1"MML/1.25"BL/OME Springs/UCF TT/33s
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No info on fusible link except I did mine in March of 2010 in my '98 and have not had any issues with the wiring. The output is more like 140 amps on the Durango alternator I installed. Not sure if the difference is a mistake or if there are two bolt up Durango alternators available, a 160 and a 140.

Small addition: I also replaced the stock 90A alternator with a 160A Durango unit used in my '97 TJ SE. I had to fab a little piece to get it connected but it bolted up fine iirc. I ran that setup without addressing the wiring (didn't know it was an issue) from 2000-2006 or so and never had any problems.

and that is very possible, but its like driving a car without a seat belt. as long as everything goes ok, its fine, but when something goes wrong, it can be very bad

in this case, the alt could throw out too much power and destroy your vehicles wiring harness and/or PDC.

just not a risk i'm willing to take when doing this upgrade

The alternator doesn't throw out power. You would need a load to use the power the alternator has. If you have no load other than the regular electronic stuff there is no problem. But, you add on driving lights amps for your radio a winch then you will be using the amps the alternator can provide. This is where you would want to upgrade the alternator and the wires in that circuit. You do need the fusable link, but I'd think that if you had a fast blowing fuse inline that would also work.

The alternator doesn't throw out power. You would need a load to use the power the alternator has. If you have no load other than the regular electronic stuff there is no problem. But, you add on driving lights amps for your radio a winch then you will be using the amps the alternator can provide. This is where you would want to upgrade the alternator and the wires in that circuit. You do need the fusable link, but I'd think that if you had a fast blowing fuse inline that would also work.

correct, and i shouldnt have used that terminology. I did because the max output of a 160a alt should be 160a, but what if it malfunctions during a winch pull and has more than 160a draw off it?

this kind of hits my end goal though. i do have a rather higher amp draw winch (warn 9.5ti) and two stereo amps. both systems are wired directly to my battery. the stereo amps have a 100a in-line fuse in the main power feed.

would a high amp draw winch be able to pull more power than a 10 awg fusible link can handle?

would there be any downside to putting the fusible link between the battery and PDC?

knucklehead linked an article in another thread that went over fusible links in good detail. it outlined why it is not a good idea to replace a fusible link with a fuse or breaker, as was my original idea

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